DZone
Integration Zone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
  • Refcardz
  • Trend Reports
  • Webinars
  • Zones
  • |
    • Agile
    • AI
    • Big Data
    • Cloud
    • Database
    • DevOps
    • Integration
    • IoT
    • Java
    • Microservices
    • Open Source
    • Performance
    • Security
    • Web Dev
DZone > Integration Zone > How to Detect if a User Is Idle

How to Detect if a User Is Idle

In this article, look at how to detect if a user is active on a Windows machine in order to help deliver notifications more effectively. Read on to find out more.

Romiko Derbynew user avatar by
Romiko Derbynew
·
Oct. 28, 16 · Integration Zone · Tutorial
Like (2)
Save
Tweet
7.61K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

You are running a Windows forms application that runs as a system tray. You have a few notifications that you would like to show the user. However, what good are notifications if the user is away? He or she will not see them.

Solution

Run a timer that detects when the user is active on the machine, and then show the notification or other tasks that you would like to provide. Below is the sample code that will do this for you. Of course, for your production environment, you would use a timer of some sort or event subscription service.

I have tested this by using other applications while the program monitors my input. It's safe to say that it works across all of my applications, even when the screen is locked. You might want to deal with an issue where the screen is locked but the user is moving the mouse.

I know that MSDN mentions that GetLastInputInfo is not system wide. However, on my Windows 10 machine, it does seem to be the case that it is system-wide.

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading;

namespace MyMonitor
{
 class Program
 {
 static void Main()
 {

 for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
 {
 Console.WriteLine($"Last Input: {LastInput.ToShortTimeString()}");
 Console.WriteLine($"Idle for: {IdleTime.Seconds} Seconds");
 Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
 }
 }

 [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = false)]
 private static extern bool GetLastInputInfo(ref Lastinputinfo plii);
 private static readonly DateTime SystemStartup = DateTime.Now.AddMilliseconds(-Environment.TickCount);

 [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
 private struct Lastinputinfo
 {
 public uint cbSize;
 public readonly int dwTime;
 }

 public static DateTime LastInput => SystemStartup.AddMilliseconds(LastInputTicks);

 public static TimeSpan IdleTime => DateTime.Now.Subtract(LastInput);

 private static int LastInputTicks
 {
 get
 {
 var lii = new Lastinputinfo {cbSize = (uint) Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(Lastinputinfo))};
 GetLastInputInfo(ref lii);
 return lii.dwTime;
 }
 }
 }
}

idle-time-of-user

IDLE (Python) application Windows Forms Machine Production (computer science) Monitor (synchronization) IT

Published at DZone with permission of Romiko Derbynew, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • My Sentiments, Erm… Not Exactly
  • Monolith vs Microservices Architecture: To Split or Not to Split?
  • Creating an Event-Driven Architecture in a Microservices Setting
  • How to Translate Value to Executives Using an Outcome-Driven Mindset

Comments

Integration Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • MVB Program
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends:

DZone.com is powered by 

AnswerHub logo